Story and photographs by Michael Gordon. Nonprofit electronic
reproduction and copying permitted provided proper attribution is made.
This version published electronically in the month of May, 1998.
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Summer, 1971. The Explorer Scouts, led by the adventurer (and, I
think, music professor at the College of Southern Utah) Jim D., did perform
many lesser hikes to build stamina for this big one. First came the two mile
uphill footrace, with two-minute timed starts so that we were not actually
racing alongside someone. This was a hike up to the "C" above Cedar
City, Utah. Then came a day hike downhill from Cedar Breaks, and by now, not
many of the scouts were participating since it was becoming too much like
WORK. That downhill hike was fun, but grueling. At this place shown in the
photograph, we came to a small waterfall and associated cliff, and could not
get down -- known as "ledged up" so we went up high to the right to
walk along a talus slope between a cliff below and a cliff above. Jim slipped,
and almost fell over the cliff. He said, "I almost lost my water!"
and I think he did not mean the water inside his canteen. This photograph was
made later, when Paul (left), Mark (right) and I returned, this time with a
length of rope to get down the cliff. |
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The downhill hike caused me great pain for more than a week, muscles
ached that had probably not EVER been used extensively! The next hike
required developing not merely stamina, but some common (or uncommon) sense.
So, we were given to know that this was an overnight camp, with mostly uphill
hiking. I was very much overpacked and overweight for this hike, and it was
indeed very strenuous; the first afternoon was easy, but the following day --
sunny and hot, not like you see here -- was also about 12 miles of uphill
hiking. Needless to say, the other scouts were not interested in this hike
and they did not participate. Curiously, the three of us constituted the
intellectual group of Cedar City High School and did not involve ourselves in
sports -- but we loved hiking and camping once Jim D. had "turned us
on" to this particular sport. |
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August, 1971: The Big One. Left to right: Michael G., Mark J.,
Jody W., Jim D., standing in a meadow at Giant Forest, part of Sequoia
National Park. This is the hike that Jim D. had proposed one year earlier to
a group of 17 young men, all of whom approved of the idea except me, and I
knew that the High Sierras were dangerous, requiring more knowledge and
stamina than I possessed at the time. By the time the event arrived, all but
Mark and I had dropped out for one reason or another; most dropped out because
this is not basketball, Paul became fed up with Jim's practical jokes. I don't
know why Jody (his neice) came along, but an interesting coincidence happened
at the end of the hike which I might remember to mention. |
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92 miles of hiking awaited us on the High Sierra Trail. By now, I was
not too concerned about it, trusting in the experience I had gained already,
the skill of our scoutmaster (which was excellent, this was his third time
over this route), and my faith in God to fix up any remaining oversights and
make the journey safe or memorable or both hopefully. As is often the case,
the parts that were less safe were also more memorable! |
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We started a bit late in the afternoon, so did not plan on getting very
far. I think we managed perhaps 7 miles, maybe not that far; but anyway,
about 3 miles short of Bearpaw Meadow cabin. Nature was calling, so I speeded
up my pace to get ahead of the others sufficient to answer the call privately,
and discovered that I had a natural hiking pace that ate up the miles with
less fatigue than a slower pace. This was an amazing discovery. Eventually I
found a wonderful camping spot, and while waiting for the others, was trying
to befriend a young deer, and almost succeeded when Mark showed up and
frightened the deer. The deer left rapidly, of course. Mark, upon seeing the
camp, announced that Jim and Jody had made camp alongside the trail under a
tree in rather cramped quarters. Mark gave me his little flashlight, and I
went back along the trail a mile or so to find them, and invite them to come
to the much nicer place. They declined, so I returned to my camp, but along
the way the flashlight battery died and so I almost had to grope my way
through the forest. This was perhaps the first unexpected
adventure. |
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The beautiful view southeast from Bearpaw Meadow cabin. Our plans called
for eating lunch here, unfortunately, the cost of a peanut butter sandwich was
very high as one might expect, and neither Mark nor myself had brought much,
or any, money; supposing our scout leader would provide. He had not intended
to, and so we found ourselves a bit short; but divvied up one sandwich between
Mark and myself. Mark stood up and dropped his camera, and it did not
function for the rest of the day until nightfall at Kaweah Gap where we
camped, and fixed his camera using a piece of wire for a spanner wrench and a
toothpick to reset a cam lever back to where it was supposed to go. |
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The trail east of Bearpaw Meadow becomes quite exciting. The trail
starts out at Giant Forest, way above the canyon floor. Then eastward, the
canyon floor rises more rapidly than the trail, such that eventually the trail
meets the canyon floor, at the points marked in yellow arrows on the
photograph (a faint line denotes the trail). Up to that point, the trail hugs
the side of the canyon. At this place, Mark and I stopped to make some lunch,
and Jim and Jody kept on. Alas, I developed a salt shortage (heat exhaustion)
and only Jim had the salt tablets. It became very serious; we had no choice
but to catch up with Jim, but I was becoming dizzy and uncertain that I would
stay on the trail. We did catch up with Jim, but it was past the point marked
in yellow. He disputed with me what I needed, but I was insistent, and he
gave me two, as I lay near the river at the outlet of Hamilton Lake.
Altogether 7 tablets. Maybe 5 but I'm pretty sure 7. Anyway, I felt great
after that, highly energized which was a good thing since the trail now became
steeply uphill and even more dangerous in places. |
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Here we are climbing up to Kaweah Gap, the place we shall spend our
second night. The views are spectacular, needless to say! But it was a lot
of work, and very hot. When we reached the top, I lay down on a snowdrift to
cool off. Later, Mark and I fixed his camera, using a burning Hexamine tablet
for light. It was plenty cold by the next morning. |
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Third Day. We have hiked down from Kaweah Gap and are now in a valley
called "Big Arroyo." Mark is trying to set up a fishing pole, but
it was a wimpy little pole that did not function well. View is to the north
and a bit east perhaps. You can see the snow which feeds into this little
lake. |
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Another view of Big Arroyo, looking south and a bit east. It eventually
joins Kern Canyon. The water in the stream flowing through this U-shaped
glacial valley is very cold and perfectly clear. Here we took our first bath.
The water was very extremely cold, and required one to jump in a deep spot and
be completely dunked because it was not likely one could do it more than
twice. We had special bio-degradable soap, wasn't really soap at all (we used
Shaklee Basic-H which is perfectly clear) and the second dunking was worse
than the first since we knew what was coming. But, standing naked on a
granite rock, letting the sun warm my body, that was most excellent! Jody had
gone farther downstream to take a bath. |
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This was a big-miles day, 17 miles hiked. We got rained on, and the rain
had just stopped when Mark and I, walking ahead of Jim and Jody, arrived at
Moraine Lake. Here is Mark, already wading in the lake. He gathered up many
frogs, a dozen or two, and when Jim arrived and rested himself by sitting on
the ground leaning against this fallen tree, with Jody beside him, on the side
facing the sun, Mark came up from behind and dumped all the frogs on him. Jim
did not like that and was very angry. Evidently he was afraid of
frogs. |
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Day 4. We stayed a whole day at Moraine Lake. As you can see, it is a
jewel in the morning sunlight, here seen with a few to the south and a bit
west. Jim and Jody hiked around to the far side, I built up a fire -- Jim was
sometimes ridiculing me for my fires, but when the rain came pouring down in a
deluge later that day, when Mark and I were on log rafts out in the middle
(where, curiously, the lake is shallow -- less than knee deep, but surrounded by
a deep water moat), but the fire kept us warm during the storm, so Jim did not
criticize my fire after that. We used big slabs of fireproof sequioa bark to
keep the rain off the fire. Rain got into my electronic flash and ended
nighttime photography for me. |
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Day 5. Payback! Jim has a long memory for offense, so by now we were
not hiking together very much, and also Mark and I were very much faster. So,
Jim and Jody left off about an hour before Mark and I did, it seems that Mark
and I were obliged to prepare our breakfast that morning alone, which would
not be a problem except that we had not divvied up the load to make it
possible to split the group. Mark had most of the pots and pans, Jim had most
of the food. Anyway, in this meadow, the trail fizzled out, and we lost the
trail. So we followed the little stream that went through the meadow, and
found animal trails and hoped they would lead us down into Kern
Canyon. |
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Following the animal trails led us into the most beautiful forest we had
encountered on the entire hike. Trees, birds, and vast panoramic scenes; and
plus it turned out to be a pretty good shortcut full of adventure. We found
Quaking Aspen trees, in fact, one such sapling allowed us to spring our way
across the creek at one particularly difficult spot down in a crevasse with
hardly any place to stand, and a tiny but roaring creek sharing it, and the
sapling allowed us to swing over to the other side right in front of a small
cataract. Jim disputed our story, saying there were no aspens, but later a
park ranger confirmed that there were such trees. |
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This is, without a doubt, the most gorgeous view I found on the hike -- and
the astonishing fact is, that we would never have found it had we not gotten
lost. The trail is down in those trees to the north and near to the edge of
Kern Canyon. The trail is less steep, we had come this near to Kern Canyon
and, as you can see, were very high in altitude. Far distant, to the right of
the clouds but left of the near peak on the far right, is Mount Whitney, our
destination. We go down into Kern Canyon, hike northward and make
camp. |
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A view to the south halfway down into Kern Canyon. It was at this place
that we rejoined the trail, and we were very lucky; many or most creeks simply
pour over the cliff in a high waterfall. As it turned out, the shortcut
chopped about 45 minutes of catch-up time to rejoin Jim and Jody. I was the
firestarter that night, as usual, and I was pleased to be extra careful; I had
noticed a thick bed of pine needles overlayed by dirt, so I dug down through
the pine needles to make the fire ring, and ensure that the fire would not run
slowly underground through the bed of needles. And, as usual, it took only
one match to light the fire. |
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Day 6. Jim decided upon a shortcut, an avalanche chute right up the
canyon side. True that it chopped off nearly a day's hike, but gee whiz, this
was a tough climb! Nice view to the north, however, as can be seen in this
photo. Anyway, part of the time we had to climb right on top of thick
mesquite bushes. Water was scarce or nonexistent. |
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About three-fourths of the way up, Jim and Jody make a blunder; deciding
to make a short cut from the short cut, and left the chute, and went on the
outside of the cliff; and got ledged up really bad. Mark and I didn't know it,
we proceeded to the top. Sat on a log to rest, saw a huge big rock that was
perfectly clear, amorphous quartz or something like that. It was beautiful,
and way too big to carry out. So I took a tiny piece, clear as glass, not
following normal crystal cleavage planes but was wavy surfaced, but of course
I have no idea where it is now. Naturally, I am curious what it is because it
was an extremely odd place to have such a large (probably 25 pounds or bigger)
somewhat spherical chunk of perfectly clear glass. |
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Well, we got tired of waiting, we called; and finally heard an answer
distantly. So we proceeded, Mark and I anyway, and eventually made camp in
Crabtree Meadow. Actually, looking at the milage chart, I think it was
Junction Meadow. In fact, it was several hours later,
almost night, when Jim and Jody showed up. This photo is from the next
morning, Day 7, showing how clear the water is. If you look closely you can
see ripples of water where Jody is dipping, but otherwise, you cannot see the
water itself. |
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Day 7 was a rest day, left the camp in an established state and went
fishing south and east from Crabtree Meadow. I caught a medium sized fish; a huge one got
away when my fishline was tangled up. As you can see, the elevation is very
high, above the timberline. We met a hiker that had just came over the top of
the mountain you see in the background. Then, part of the mountain collapsed
on the right, but my camera was trapped inside my windbreaker and the zipper
chose that exact moment to get stuck and I was unable to photograph the
landslide. Rockslide. Avalanche. Then, coming down, we mistook the meadow,
and came to a different meadow that looked just like the one our camp was in,
but our camp was missing, and I supposed that Jim was doing another practical
joke. But we eventually found our camp. |
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Day 8 ended at Guitar Lake, visible as a pond in the background. It is
way above the timberline, and I hiked down a mile or two back the way we came
to find some deadwood. What I found was rather large, part of a fallen tree,
and it was very heavy but I had taken the pack off the frame, and tied the
wood piece to the frame, and hauled it up the trail. It was big enough to
share with a number of other hikers, and so we did. We met one fellow that
had been on the trail for 30 days, having come from the north, and having
cached food at several places. IT was very cold here, and the rocks deflect,
somewhat, the wind. It was not very soft, and not very pleasant that
night. |
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Mark decided to try sleeping on the grass, but it was wet, and had
millions of little black beetles in it, so he abandoned the idea. |
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Day 8, final day, SUCCESS! We have reached Mount Whitney, the highest
spot on the continental United States. Here am I standing near the edge, some
brave (or foolish) folks are dangling their legs over the edge, and it is
about 3,000 feet straight down before the slope begins! This is a view
eastward. Since Jim had been here before, he did not accompany Mark and I up
to the summit. Along the way, we saw people sitting or laying on the trail,
gasping for breath, that had ascended all the way from Lone Pine, down in the
valley (3,000 feet elevation) perhaps that same day. I felt fine.
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Mark, with a view northward from Mount Whitney. His camera malfunctioned
again, this time the film did not catch on the sprocket, so none of his
photographs were actually photographed. When we came down from the summit, he
complained of something poking him in the back. You see, Jim said, leave the
packs at the trail junction and then come back for them. So we did. Well,
Mark was insistent, so we took the pack off and looked in, and found a big
granite boulder, probably five pounds and pointy. He looked elsewhere, and
found more rocks stashed in his pack, doubtless Jim's doing. In fact, we
missed one, and kept it for a souvenir when we finally found it. Anyway, we
decided to keep our knowledge secret from Jim, and do something in
return. |
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Going down, eastward, from Mount Whitney is astonishing. I counted more
than 90 switchbacks, I think the exact number is recorded in my journal.
Anyway, it would be extremely difficult to ascend this in one day, but that is
what some people do, or try to do. It is not wise to ascend from Whitney
Portal all the way to Mount Whitney in one day. |
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Looking almost vertically down on Mark's head. We passed by Jim, and they
were eating lunch, and had nothing for us, but we had nothing for ourselves,
since we were packing the pots and pans (that's where many rocks were hidden),
and we were becoming angry with Jim for his selfishness, or lack of
distribution, or both. So, we reached his car, waiting at Whitney Portal,
removed the keys from the air cleaner filter, and put a rock in its place.
Several scout troops were nearby and curious; so when Jim showed up, he
noticed all these boys watching him, and knew something was up. He was very
angry when he found the rock, but Jody thought it was funny. |
The End of the Story |
Jim took us to a little general store with enough money to buy candy
bars, one for each, and while therein, called out to us, "We are going
into town for dinner" and zoomed off. This REALLY made me angry; because
he had our packs in the car, and we had nothing even which to keep us warm or
water to drink.
We waited until about 7 p.m. in the parking lot, and then we
decided to walk down to Lone Pine and hitch-hike home. On the way, at the
other end of the parking lot, we met a fellow cooking a big pot of something,
and he had been on the trail for a very long time, 30 days or so (I do not
remember if it was the same man that we had met the night before at Guitar
Lake but I don't think so). He was cooking up the surplus of his food, and
offered some to Mark and myself. We were very grateful for it, and accepted.
As it was getting cold and dark, he offered me an old raggedy and somewhat
self-standing flannel shirt, and I was grateful for that, too. The contrast,
his generosity and compassion, stood greatly against Jim's negligence. So the
three of us started hiking down to Lone Pine.
On the way hiking to Lone Pine, Jim and Jody came
up the road about 9 p.m. or so, and were surprised to see Mark and I walking
to town. What did they expect? Anyway, the big surprise was that the man we
were with knew Jody, and vice versa, had apparently met in college at one time
not too far back. So we went to town, and Mark and I sat on the sidewalk
outside the café while the adults went to the bar. Shortly after, the
man came out and sat with Mark and I, he did not enjoy the tavern atmosphere,
especially after 30 days in the wilderness. He went out into a farmer's field
nearby to camp, and invited us to join. We said we'd first test Jim's latest
instructions.
Jim had told us to go to a room, 104 I think, at a nearby motel
and knock on the door at 11 p.m. and he would let us in. We seriously
expected that he would be across the motel watching through the window as we
knocked on the door of a stranger. But, he finally told us straight and true,
except of course the reason for the cloak and dagger stuff; at the time it
seemed apparent that he was not informing the motel management of the true
number of guests, but now that I am married, my wife suggests that perhaps he
wanted some private time with Jody. Or, perhaps, Jody just wanted to get
cleaned up without teenagers in the same room.
When I came home, this was one of the rare few times my father was proud
of me, and we went down to the market, and bought some big steaks, and grilled
them, just my father and me, and it was altogether a very fine
adventure. |
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